Current Events > Croatian freediver held his breath underwater for 29 minutes

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A Croatian freediver has achieved a seemingly impossible feat.

On June 14 of this year, Vitomir Marii took one last gulp of pure oxygen and lay down in a pool. There he remained, cool as a sea cucumber, for 29 minutes and 3 seconds.

That's officially the longest held voluntary breath, according to Guinness World Records. Marii beat the previous record holder by nearly 5 minutes.

Nearly half an hour without air is mind boggling. That's roughly twice as long as a bottlenose dolphin is thought to hold its breath. With that sort of performance, Marii could give a harbor seal a run for its money.

With each breath, a seal can replace 90 percent of the air in its lungs but our species can only replace 20 percent. To keep up, we need more breaths to fill our lungs with fresh air.

To get as much oxygen into his body as it could possibly carry, Marii inhaled pure oxygen for 10 minutes before the attempt.

This increased the oxygen dissolved in his blood plasma, which is a crucial reservoir for the body's tissues.

On an Instagram reel, Marii explains that he started his record-breaking attempt with nearly five times more oxygen in his body than usual. Without that, he never could have lasted so long.

Even when breathing normal air, however, the Croatian athlete's abilities are impressive. He can hold his breath for up to 10 minutes and 8 seconds.

The Guinness World Record for unaided breath-holding is 11 minutes and 35 seconds, and it was set by Branko Petrovic of Serbia in 2014.

To put that in perspective, the average person can hold their breath for between 30 and 90 seconds.

According to the official Guinness website, Marii attempted the longest held breath in June to bring attention to ocean conservation.

Having already racked up a few related world records so far, perhaps Marii will next turn his eye to Petrovic's record.

Crazy stuff. I didn't know pure oxygen could be breathed even. I thought it was dangerous

Crazy stuff. I didn't know pure oxygen could be breathed even. I thought it was dangerous

Guybrush Threepwood could never.

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Ive been talking about this the past few days. 29min is just insane, even after breathing pure oxygen for 10min.

When I was snorkeling in Cozumel, one of the guides free dived to the bottom and picked up a conk shell to hold it up for us because it was so big. He was standing on the floor around 40ft deep, under water for about 5min.

Ive been talking about this the past few days. 29min is just insane, even after breathing pure oxygen for 10min.

When I was snorkeling in Cozumel, one of the guides free dived to the bottom and picked up a conk shell to hold it up for us because it was so big. He was standing on the floor around 40ft deep, under water for about 5min.